Production Order vs. Broadcast Order (1 Viewer)

[The Obsolete Man]

My bottom line: I wish it wasn't so much of a hassle to watch the BDs of TOS in production order.

I have considered ripping them and reburning the BD 50s with episodes in production order.

Honestly, I usually give up, watch The Cage, Where No Man Has Gone Before, Corbomite Maneuver, then say "fu*k it" and watch everything else in the order presented on the discs.

 

[Carabimero]

Yes, I was only considering ripping eight episodes (two discs).

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Yes, I was only considering ripping eight episodes (two discs).

That was the one good thing about Trek being from when it was... continuity wasn't normally a big deal, even though episodes like Where No Man and Corbomite were specifically set up to explain the show, so they should have been first.

Now, when you go later into TV history and there's a show like Sliders, where Fox screwed the pooch so thoroughly, that's when you need production order followed to the letter. And I don't think that even happened on disc until Mill Creek's rerelease.

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

The other problem with stardate order, and most serious in my opinion, is that stardates are designed to compensate for variations in Relativity experienced by starships traveling at relativistic velocities, or near large-mass bodies such as black holes. *pounds fist* I just don't see Blu-rays compensating for this!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

even though episodes like Where No Man and Corbomite were specifically set up to explain the show, so they should have been first.

There's justification for Corbomite not airing first - the effects weren't ready until nearly halfway through the season.

But if you believe Marc Cushman's book, Where No Man was never intended to air at all, and only aired because they didn't have enough finished episodes ready to go. Because the episode featured some different casting and costume design, apparently either the studio or the network wanted to stay away from, but a shortage of completed episodes apparently forced their hand.

It was obviously ready a year before they premiered, so it could have been shown first if they had wanted to. By virtue of the fact that it didn't air first, that at the least suggests they didn't want it to be an audience's first look at Star Trek.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

There's justification for Corbomite not airing first - the effects weren't ready until nearly halfway through the season.

But if you believe Marc Cushman's book, Where No Man was never intended to air at all, and only aired because they didn't have enough finished episodes ready to go. Because the episode featured some different casting and costume design, apparently either the studio or the network wanted to stay away from, but a shortage of completed episodes apparently forced their hand.

It was obviously ready a year before they premiered, so it could have been shown first if they had wanted to. By virtue of the fact that it didn't air first, that at the least suggests they didn't want it to be an audience's first look at Star Trek.

IIRC, they had a few options... Where No Man, Man Trap, and a third episode that would have been infinitely better than The Man Trap, but instead of going with the actual pilot or the better episode, they picked goofy salt vampire to debut the show to the world.

And that set the tone for NBC's bad decisions regarding Star Trek.

 

[B-ROLL]

IIRC, they had a few options... Where No Man, Man Trap, and a third episode that would have been infinitely better than The Man Trap, but instead of going with the actual pilot or the better episode, they picked goofy salt vampire to debut the show to the world.

And that set the tone for NBC's bad decisions regarding Star Trek.

(other than The Cage, The third script they bought was The Omega Glory which wasn't produced until the 2nd season )

The Man Trap also explained the premise ... WNMHGB was not supposed to air... the effects weren't done in time for other episodes

As for production order ... don't even try on the syndicated Hee-Haw shows. They shot everything for the season in six weeks and edited the material into shows

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Or look at TOS S2 - Catspaw was shot first, but the intention was always for Amok Time to be the season premiere, and for Catspaw to air as their Halloween show.

I've watched the complete series in production order, broadcast order, themed order and random order. With the BDs as they are, I usually will go to the trouble of watching S1 in production order, but I'm okay with using the broadcast order for the later two seasons.

(I haven't watched a ton of TOS in the last couple years so I just have a list of all the episodes, and I'll watch one at random or depending on mood and check it off. I figure once I've checked them all then I can start again in some other fashion.)

 

[Jack P]

If one cares about the continuity of Chekov's hair, watch "Catspaw" first!

 

[Lord Dalek]

You want hard to follow? Try Law & Order's first season. They aired the pilot (shot two years earlier for a different network with a different title sequence and cast) five weeks in.

 

[Tom St Jones]

Is the DVD release of LAW & ORDER: LOS ANGELES broadcast or production order?. The series was yanked from the air by NBC a handful of episodes into it's first/ only season - despite fairly good ratings and reviews - and significantly overhauled. It returned to the air nearly 5 months later(!), only to be canceled at season's end. When show resumed, it was at the point taking place after the revamp (including the murder of a lead character). Following the "season finale", the episodes filmed but unaired prior to the revamp were then burned off over the early-summer period.

Another one I'm curious about is MIAMI VICE, the Blu-ray version. Like the aforementioned L&O:LA, Miami Vice's original run (also on NBC) ended oddly. The show had filmed a full 21 episodes for the final season, but NBC aired the extended finale in May 1989 as the 17th episode. NBC subsequently broadcast 3 more new, unaired episodes during the summer, and the last appeared during USA Network's reruns of the show a year later.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Is the DVD release of LAW & ORDER: LOS ANGELES broadcast or production order?. The series was yanked from the air by NBC a handful of episodes into it's first/ only season - despite fairly good ratings and reviews - and significantly overhauled. It returned to the air nearly 5 months later(!), only to be canceled at season's end. When show resumed, it was at the point taking place after the revamp (including the murder of a lead character). Following the "season finale", the episodes filmed but unaired prior to the revamp were then burned off over the early-summer period.

Another one I'm curious about is MIAMI VICE, the Blu-ray version. Like the aforementioned L&O:LA, Miami Vice's original run (also on NBC) ended oddly. The show had filmed a full 21 episodes for the final season, but NBC aired the extended finale in May 1989 as the 17th episode. NBC subsequently broadcast 3 more new, unaired episodes during the summer, and the last appeared during USA Network's reruns of the show a year later.

From what I've read elsewhere, Miami Vice is in broadcast order on Blu, so adjust your watching order accordingly.

 

[jcroy]

Is the DVD release of LAW & ORDER: LOS ANGELES broadcast or production order?. The series was yanked from the air by NBC a handful of episodes into it's first/ only season - despite fairly good ratings and reviews - and significantly overhauled. It returned to the air nearly 5 months later(!), only to be canceled at season's end. When show resumed, it was at the point taking place after the revamp (including the murder of a lead character). Following the "season finale", the episodes filmed but unaired prior to the revamp were then burned off over the early-summer period.

The dvd set appears to be in broadcast order. The "burned off" episodes were after the "season finale".

 

[Ron Lee Green]

I thought of a few instances in Bewitched where broadcast order makes more sense. The first example, is when a star becomes ill. Dick York had health problems and started missing episodes. He had a seizure on the set during the production of season five, and he never came back, so the producers spread his already filmed episodes out during the course of the season, so he just wouldn't disappear mid-season.

Another possible example, is when the star becomes pregnant. Elizabeth Montgomery was pregnant 3 times during the series, and they had to film around her while she was on maternity leave. I know she discovered she was pregnant with child #1 after the pilot sold but before they started filming season one, so the director filmed the first 6 ot 7 episodes around her. Tabatha was written when Liz became pregnant with Child #2, and Adam was introduced when Liz became pregnant with Child #3.

Another case is when an actor dies: Alice Pearce and Marion Lorne died during production (Although, I think Lorne died after the season completed). They held back one of Pearce's episode and made it a "flashback" episode at the end of the season.

 

[texboil]

Another possible example, is when the star becomes pregnant. Elizabeth Montgomery was pregnant 3 times during the series, and they had to film around her while she was on maternity leave. I know she discovered she was pregnant with child #1 after the pilot sold but before they started filming season one, so the director filmed the first 6 ot 7 episodes around her. Tabatha was written when Liz became pregnant with Child #2, and Adam was introduced when Liz became pregnant with Child #3.

 

[texboil]

This also happened during the third season of Cheers. Shelley Long was pregnant so they filmed the season finale earlier. Other, less Diane-centric episodes aired earlier, and try as producers might, she is quite clearly pregnant in many shots.

Of course Seinfeld was also an example of shows airing way out of production order. Executives hated The Chinese Restaurant and buried it late in the second season. They also held one second season episode -- The Stranded -- over to the third season for reasons supposedly having to do with Larry David being unhappy with the episode. I believe there was an intro aired to explain the many continuity errors in the episode.

 

[Rob P S]

I pity anyone who tries to watch Family Ties in production order unless you like shuffling between discs and seasons. Episodes were shelved for years, burned off in the summer and aired wherever they landed, for some bizarre network reason.

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

The Cosby Show had four holdover episodes, all respectively from seasons 3, 5, 6, and 7. They respectively aired during seasons 4, 6, 7, and 8.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I pity anyone who tries to watch Family Ties in production order unless you like shuffling between discs and seasons. Episodes were shelved for years, burned off in the summer and aired wherever they landed, for some bizarre network reason.

Boston Legal would be even worse for season 2, because during the first season, they put the show on hiatus to make room for Grey's Anatomy, which proved to be an unexpected hit. As a result, they held over the remaining five episodes for the second season. Problem is, Rhona Mitra and Monica Potter departed after that first production block.

Rather than air those five shows first and have to reconcile the cast changes immediately after, the production team took those five shows, and re-edited them to incorporate new footage (with the new characters) so that they could introduce the new cast in the first episode, and also so they wouldn't have to write-out Mitra and Potter so abruptly. I think they might have even spread out that original footage across more than just those five shows (since they were adding back in new footage with Julie Bowen and the other new cast members).

I remember seeing a featurette somewhere (maybe on the DVDs) showing how they used Candice Bergen to help "bridge" the combination of old/new footage, how they tried to make sure all her clothes, etc. matched both the old/new shots, etc. to make it less obvious that they were piecing two different sets of footage together.

So, those five hold-over episodes "as-originally-produced" have never been shown in their original form, and to try to re-shuffle those five shows as they exist now into production order would cause big problems, as the story threads involving Julie Bowen and the other new characters would then be out of sequence.

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

It's also like that with Family Ties. One episode produced for season 2 did not air until season 6, while the re-edited versions of the episodes that made up the 1985 special Family Ties Vacation were shown between seasons 5-6.

Also, I believe at least two of the six season 1 episodes of The Brady Bunch that were filmed (as a group) months after the pilot -- when Florence Henderson was only available for filming at certain times because of her Scandinavian commute -- likely were filmed out of order. Older versions of stories like this suggested "Dear Libby" was filmed before "A Clubhouse is Not a Home," but recent Wiki edits prove otherwise. I know, because "A Clubhouse is Not a Home" was supposed to follow the plot of the pilot.

~Ben